2018’s Top 10 Tech Cars: Kia Niro

This boxy hybrid sculpts the air

1 min read
Kia Niro
Photo: Kia Motors

This Year’s
Winning Autos

The Kia Niro is the quiet ecocar. All you get is terrific mileage, pleasing style, and capability, in three affordable flavors: a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid, and soon, a full EV version.

The Niro sandwiches a 32-kilowatt (43-horsepower) electric motor between a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder gasoline engine and a nifty dual-clutch, six-speed transmission. Combine those gas and electric sources and you’ve got a peak power of 104 kW (139 hp) and the thrust of 264 newton meters (195 foot-⁠pounds) of peak torque.

The Niro joins the Ioniq as the world’s first production cars with no 12-volt lead-acid battery. The Kia packages a 12-V, 30-ampere-hour lithium-ion starter battery below its back seat, sharing a housing with the 240-V hybrid battery.

MOTOR PLUS ENGINE

104 kilowatts

ENERGY ECONOMY

4.7 L/100 km, combined city and highway

PRICE

US $28,840

The EPA credits the Niro with up to 4.7 liters per 100 kilometers (49 miles per gallon) in combined city and highway driving, but I saw 61 mpg on one highway run in upstate New York. Over a week, the Niro returned 53 mpg, including mileage-sapping crawls through Manhattan.

For 2018, the Niro adds a plug-in model whose larger, 8.9-kilowatt-hour battery pack (versus 1.6 kWh) allows 26 miles of all-electric range at 105 mpge (2.2  L/100 km), the electric equivalent of a gasoline mileage rating. That plug-in Niro starts at US $28,840, versus $24,280 for the standard hybrid.

In January, Kia showed a Niro concept with a 64-kWh battery, a 150-kW (201-hp) motor, and a 383-km (238-mile) range, precisely matching the power output and range of the Bolt. This silent EV even broadcasts spoken alerts of its presence. Perhaps they’ll come from some Ratso Rizzo, in reverse: “I’m drivin’ here!”

This article is for IEEE members only. Join IEEE to access our full archive.

Join the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences and get access to all of Spectrum’s articles, podcasts, and special reports. Learn more →

If you're already an IEEE member, please sign in to continue reading.

Membership includes:

  • Get unlimited access to IEEE Spectrum content
  • Follow your favorite topics to create a personalized feed of IEEE Spectrum content
  • Save Spectrum articles to read later
  • Network with other technology professionals
  • Establish a professional profile
  • Create a group to share and collaborate on projects
  • Discover IEEE events and activities
  • Join and participate in discussions